Rustlings in the Wind: 2020

Thursday, November 12, 2020

"Rathgar House": Ngatimoti's school hall and the McGaveston connection.

John Cornwall McGaveston
Born at Rathgar, Co. Dublin, Ireland, 1 January 1844
Died at Ngatimoti, Tasman, New Zealand, 13 May 1925

On 20 September 1850 the ship "Mariner" arrived in Nelson, having sailed to New Zealand from London on 4 April 1850 with 172 passengers on board. Among them was Irish widow Margaret McGaveston nee Page with her two young sons, John Cornwall, aged 7, and 5 year old Charles Wynn. It was not the first sea voyage for the two little boys, who had accompanied their mother in 1848 when she sailed to India to sort out her late husband John Wynn McGaveston's affairs there - he had been a medical officer with the Hon. East India Company serving with the 2nd Bengal Artillery in India, but had died at Rathgar in 1846, not long after his retirement. Having qualified as a surgeon in Ireland in 1823 he had joined the army at Rangoon by the time war with Burma broke out in 1824.

Margaret McGaveston had travelled on the "Mariner" under the protection of the Rev. Robert John Lloyd from New Ross, Co. Wexford. Although posing as a married couple, they did not in fact get married until soon after their arrival in Nelson - their marriage taking place in Wakefield at the Wakefield Church on 19 November 1850. Both her own family and her McGaveston in-laws had had their doubts about the Rev. Lloyd, but Margaret McGaveston could not be dissuaded from the relationship and cut off any communication with them. Unfortunately, they were right to be concerned. It soon became clear that the Rev. Lloyd had found Margaret's inheritance from her first husband to be her most attractive feature and it appears that her life with him became an increasingly unhappy one.

The couple started farming in Riwaka, and John andhis brother Charles soon acquired a half-brother, Bartholomew, born at Riwaka on 19 June 1851. Known as Barty, he inherited "Sandy Cove" after his father's death in 1875, and was the oldest of the 3 surviving children born to the Rev. Lloyd and the former Margaret McGaveston. In January 1877 John McGaveston would go to the Motueka wharf with Barty to greet another Irish family who had just arrived - William & Ann Brereton, their children, and Mrs Brereton's sisters Letitia and Lizzie Bridge. They were taken to Barty Lloyd's Pangatotara home, where they were very nearly drowned during the ferocious storm which hit the Motueka Valley between the 6th and 7th of February, 1877, resulting in a benchmark inundation which became known locally as the "Old Man Flood". Another of Ann Brereton's sisters, Matilda (Tilly) Whelan nee Bridge, later came out from Ireland with her children to join them at Ngatimoti after being widowed in 1889. The Rev. Robert Lloyd was Mrs Brereton's maternal uncle, and in 1880 his son Barty Lloyd married his cousin Letitia Bridge. Cyprian Brereton would later write about the Breretons, Lloyds, Whelans and McGavestons in his book "No Roll of Drums", the stories of Ngatimoti's pioneers.

John's younger brother Charles was killed in 1855 after being gored by a bull, and his mother died at Riwaka in 1859, leaving John the only remaining member of the small family which had emigrated to New Zealand. He had been witness to this mother's mistreatment and did not get on with either his step-father or half-brother, Barty, so this was a lonely and difficult time for him, An unconfirmed family story has it that after his mother's death he was so unhappy that he ran away to sea for a time.

It's likely that the turning point for John McGaveston came when he met Ngatimoti settler John Park Salisbury, who around the same time that John was building a house at Pangatotara was also building a home in the same area for his wife, Clara Deck. Clara was a daughter of Plymouth Brethren evangelist James George Deck, who had settled on a farm in the Waiwhero Valley between Lower Moutere and Ngatimoti (still in existence and now known as. The Lodge at Paratiho Farms) James Deck had soon became an influential force in the area and converted a number of settlers to the Brethren cause, including John Salisbury. It's very likely that it was through a connection with John Salisbury that John McGaveston also joined the Plymouth Brethren, a move which brought new purpose to his life.

Over the years John married twice and with 18 children to his credit, became patriarch of his own McGaveston clan. John was married firstly to Mary Ann White, daughter of Riwaka settlers David White and his wife Sarah (nee Jenkins), originally from Alton, Hampshire, in England, by the Registrar at Moueka on 23 December, 1862. He may well have met Mary Ann through her brothers, George and David White Jnr, with whom he is known to have served in the No 5 Company of the Motueka Militia in 1860, Mary Ann's older sister, Elizabeth White, had married in 1862 to sawyer Joseph Dale Knowles, whose Pangatotara property (still owned by his descendants today) adjoined "Sandy Cove". Mary Ann had 9 children but on 8 September 1876 she died giving birth to a 10th baby, which didn't survive. She was buried at the nearby Pangatotara Cemetery, which was washed away the following year by the "Old Man Flood".

On 3 October 1877 John married secondly at Wakefield to Penelope Dean Wallis, whom he possibly met through his connection to the Daniell brothers who at the time appear to have also been members of the Plymouth Brethren. Penelope was singularly well qualified to take on a large family of step-children, added to over time by her own brood of eight. As a daughter of Richard Wallis and Mary Ann Lake Wallis, who ran orphanages at both "The Gables" on Thorp Street in Motueka and then at "Hulmers" on Chamberlain Street, Lower Moutere, Penelope had grown up looking after many younger children.

"Wallingford House", Rathgar, Co Dublin",John Cornwall McGaveston's birthplace

"Wallingford House", Rathgar, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

John Cornwall McGaveston was born in Ireland at "Wallingford House, Rathgar, County Dublin, Ireland, on 1 January 1844, being the first child of Dr John Wynn McGaveston and his wife Margaret nee Page. Dr McGaveston was a surgeon in the service of the Honourable East India Company's military branch, attached to various regiments in India, Afghanistan and Burma (now Myanmar), but he retired a year after his marriage in 1842 and returned to live permanently at his home in Ireland. Although established in Ireland by the 18th century, the McGaveston surname is thought to have its roots in Gascony, and is linked by family legend to Piers de Gaveston, an English nobleman of Gascon origin who came to a sticky end at the hands of jealous rivals after becoming a favourite of King Edward II of England. Gaveston did spend time between 1308-1309 in Ireland after being appointed the King's Lieutenant in that country and was rumoured to have had an illegitimate son from whom the present McGaveston line descended. Although this connection seems likely, it has not as yet been definitively proven. John's second name was a nod to Gaveston's title, the 1st Duke of Cornwall, and "Piers" is another name which often appeared in the McGaveston line.

Before his marriage, Dr McGaveston was already living at "Wallingford House" a rented home situated on Rathgar Road in Rathgar, then a small village on the outskirts of Dublin, but now a suburb of Dublin City. He shared it with his brother Nicholas McGaveston and Nicholas' wife Catherine, a good arrangement as until 1842 he was often away in India. After their wedding in 1842, Dr McGaveston's bride Margaret joined the household, and this is where their two sons were born. Dr John Wynn McGaveston retired from service with the Indian Army at the time of his marriage and died at his Rathgar home in 1846.

"Rathgar" No 1, Pokororo, West Bank, Motueka Valley (later known as "Riversdale")

Copy of a photograph of the McGaveston home block taken by

John Edward Salisbury, son of John Salisbury and Clara nee Deck,

neighbour and good friend of the McGaveston family, showing

his trademark intials, J.E.S.

After his marriage to his first wife, Mary Ann nee White, John McGaveston moved with her and their first child, Henry, to Pangatotara where he had built a house on a section from the "Sandy Cove" block, first leased, then bought from his step-father, however he had moved away well before the catastrophic "Old Man Flood" in February 1877 which devastated many Pangatotara farms. When he came of age in 1865, John inherited a substantial sum of money, including his deceased brother's portion, which had been willed to his two sons by their father. This came from investments made by Dr McGaveston in Bengal Government Securities in India, and had fortunately been held safely in trust for him by his uncle Nicholas McGaveston in Dublin. This windfall enabled John McGaveston to buy several sections around the Big Pokororo River on the west bank of the Motueka River. These formed the homestead block with which his family would be associated for many years. He developed a substantial mixed farm there carrying sheep and cattle as well as crops, and when pastoral leases on the Mount Arthur Tableland were made available in the 1870s, took up a run in the Cobb Valley. The Breretons were farming neighbours and recalled the McGavestons with their large blended family as being "wonderfully hospitable".

McGaveston family group in front of their Pokororo home

Lt-rt: John McGaveston, Anne, Penelope and Ralph (seated), Theo, Dora & Arthur

In memory, his father's Irish home was John McGaveston's happy place, a reminder of his early years growing up within a loving family circle long since lost, and so he named his Pokororo farm '"Rathgar" after the place where he was born. This property, along with its original homestead, was in more recent times owned by Yorkshireman Dave Gorrill, followed by his son Martin. John McGaveston had built this two-storeyed home on the river flats in 1878, but the threat posed by ongoing floods led him to successfully move the house up onto the terrace in 1891.This was a major mission, as the piles had to be removed and the building shifted in one piece, using logs beneath as rollers and a team of horses. The timing was good - in 1894 another flood washed right over the flats where the house had previously stood. Until the Peninsula Bridge was opened in 1913, getting across the Motueka River involved using a canoe or the aerial cage set up by John McGaveston which crossed almost opposite the site of the Whelan home on the east bank. When first built, this aerial cage gave access across the river to settlers on the West Bank of the Motueka River and diggers from the Tableland would use it to reach Alf Daniell's store on the opposite side of the river when they needed supplies.

The McGavestons' aerial cage, used to cross the Motueka River.

Arthur McGaveston in front, with his father John McGaveston behind.

Whelan home in the background is today sited at 1445 Motueka Valley Highway.

John McGaveston had a close connection with the storekeeping Daniell brothers, and became related by marriage - Alfred Daniell and his brother George both married sisters of McGaveston's second wife, Penelope Wallis. The Daniell brothers had early on become converts of charismatic Plymouth Brethren preacher James George Deck, then living at what is now the Paritiho Lodge Farm on Waiwhero Road between Lower Moutere and Ngatimoti, although both appear to have later ended up in the Anglican fold. John McGaveston, whose parents and step-father would have been members of the Church of Ireland, also joined the Plymouth Brethren, as did his family. He was very likely influenced to make this move by early Ngatimoti settler, John Park Salisbury, whom he may well have met while building his home at Pangatotara in 1862. John Salisbury, was also building a pit-sawn timber house which he called "Silverdale" at Pangatotara that same year, so to have a place suitable to bring his new bride, Clara, a daughter of James George Deck. Salisbury, who now became Deck's son-in-law, became a life-long and ardent evangelist for the Brethren cause, travelling widely around the country in his mission to bring more people into the Brethren fold. Ngatimoti's earliest European residents tended to have been either members of the Plymouth Brethren or the Church of England, though religious preferences don't appear in those earlier times to have been a cause for conflict.

It's quite likely that when John Park Salisbury and his family decided in 1872 to move to a farm at Pokororo, that they chose to take up land near congenial acquaintances like the Breretons and McGavestons. John Park's son John Edward Salisbury became a particularly good friend and often visited the McGaveston home. A keen photographer, he took several photos of the McGaveston family and their home, but unfortunately very few have survived.

"Rathgar" No 2, Greenhill Road, East Bank, Ngatimoti.

Four generations at "Rathgar House", Greenhill Road, Ngatimoti,

ca 1908-9

Lt-rt: Seated, Penelope McGaveston (nee Wallis), centre back her son Dean McGaveston.

Penelope's mother Mary Ann Wallis seated, holding one of Dean's children,

possibly Trixie McGaveston, born in 1908.

As time passed John McGaveston decided to retire and let his sons take care of the farm. Around the turn of the twentieth century a large local run known as the Johansen Estate was broken up and lots in the Greenhill area were auctioned off in 1906. Cyprian Brereton's aunt Matilda Whelan and her son William bought two of these blocks between them and sold a 5-acre piece to John McGaveston for a retirement home. He had a large house built there, and by 1908 had moved in with his wife Penelope, his 3 youngest daughters - Dora, Anna & Evelyn - and son Ralph, who daily crossed the river with a horse-drawn cart to work the lower part of the Pokororo farm on the West Bank of the Motueka River. Other members of the family also settled nearby and for some years Greenhill Road was McGaveston Central. Son Dean Wallis McGaveston, a well-known local drover, had a block at Greenhill called "Toko Ma" (White Rock), and an unmarried daughter from his first marriage, Amelia McGaveston (known as Millie), moved into a home on Greenhill Road right opposite the new McGaveston retirement homestead, where she raised her nephew Francis ((Frank) Piesse, the son of her sister Mary, who had died in 1912 after giving birth to him. John McGaveston's son Nicholas Arthur, who in 1909 married Ella Burrell, a daughter of early Orinoco settlers Edward Fearon and Emily (nee Bowden) Burrell, took over the old "Rathgar" homestead block at Pokororo. By mutual agreement, its name, "Rathgar", was transferred to the elder McGavestons' new home on Greenhill Road and Arthur renamed the Pokororo farm "Riversdale".

"Rathgar House", Ngatimoti School, Greenhill Road, Ngatimoti.

John McGaveston died in 1925 and his widow Penelope in 1932. They now lie next to each other at the old Waiwhero Cemetery next to the Paratiho Lodge Farm homestead block. Son Dean moved to Lower Moutere. Arthur died in 1937 and his oldest son, Keith, took over the "Riversdale" farm in turn. John and Penelope McGaveston's daughters Dora and Anna stayed on with their brother Ralph at the Greenhill "Rathgar" home. Evelyn had married in 1927 and Anna made a late marriage in 1947. Neither Dora nor her brother Ralph ever married, and were the last McGaveston family members to live at the Greenhill "Rathgar". About 1950 they moved together to a home in Richmond and "Rathgar" was put on the market.

The Ngatimoti school (the second one built) was at that time on Waiwhero Road near the current Memorial Hall on a site bought from the Daniell family, who had taken up land there and set up a new store after the Greenhill block was sold. The school had grown but couldn't expand because the site was too small. The easily accessible 5 acre "Rathgar", a relatively centrally located property at Greenhill, seemed like an ideal place to build a new school. The Nelson Education Board was at first reluctant but eventually persuaded that this was a good idea and around 1952 "Rathgar" was acquired for that purpose. The shift from the old school down the road took a while to complete, in fact the official opening did not take place till 1954. Some classes continued at the old school while others were held on the Greenhill site in the old "Rathgar" home, in a pre-fab building and also in a classroom block relocated from the other school until purpose-built schoolrooms were finished.

The old house eventually had to go to make space for classrooms, and a demolition squad of volunteers got together to do the job. It occurred to one of the parents involved that some rooms could easily be saved and made into a school hall. Others agreed and they set to work to make the conversion. This means that, unusually, Ngatimoti's school hall belongs to the school community rather than the Ministry of Education. Over the years it has often served as an extra classroom, been used by the cricket club, for Friday night folk dances, a weekly pre-schoolers' Playgroup, and hired out for events like birthday parties. A number of working bees have been held by members of the community over the years to help maintain and improve the hall. In 2018 the school's Board of Trustees decided to give the hall a major overhaul. The whole building was earthquake strengthened, insulated, re-piled, and a new deck and verandah were built. The Student Council felt tthat their new-look hall deserved a name of its own, and as a consequence when it was officially reopened in June 2019, it was formally dubbed "Rathgar House" in recognition of its connection with the McGaveston family.

Acknowledgements

For her extensive work, McGaveston family researcher Mrs Ruth Pahl, grand-daughter of Nicholas Arthur McGaveston & his wife Ella nee Burrell.

Mr Ed Stevens, Ngatimoti historian, always happy and willing to share his knowledge.

Sources

Brereton, Cyprian Bridge, No Roll of Drums. Pub 1947 by AH & AW Reed, Wellington.

An informal and engaging history of the settlement of Ngatimoti and its early European settlers.

Day, Cameron, writing as "Cerebuscoins", The McGaveston Family of Ireland: Family History Research.

https://cerberuscoins.wordpress.com/2014/08/29/mcgaveston-family-of-ireland/

This extensive blog post contains a goldmine of information and includes many interesting photographs.

Daniell Brothers, Alfred & George, Storekeepers at Ngatimoti and Brightwater.

Rustlings in the Wind blog

https://rustlingsinthewind.blogspot.com/2023/05/daniell-brothers-alfred-george.html

Friday, October 9, 2020

Salisbury’s Ferry at the west bank of the Motueka River (1879)

"Salisbury's Ferry" [1879]
E.A.C. Thomas, photographer

Ngatimoti pioneers, the Salisbury family lived at Pokokoro on the west bank of the Motueka River.They kept a canoe near the confluence of the Graham and Motueka Rivers (pretty much where the Pokororo footbridge stands today) and ran a service transporting people and goods, including live sheep and bales of wool, from one side to the other. Foot passengers were charged a fee of sixpence. This became known as Salisbury’s Ferry.

There being no bridges for many years, up to nine other settlers also had punts and canoes operating on the river between the current Baton and Alexander Bluff Bridges, the Hodges family being one of them. Goldminers and farmers, Sydney Hodges & his brother William settled at the far end of the Graham Valley around 1880, where they each ran in turn an accommodation house at the South Branch of the Graham called "Glencoe” and had a service packing tourists, diggers and fossickers up to the Mt Arthur Tableland. They ran a canoe between Hodges’ Landing on the east bank and Cole’s Beach on the west and the Hodges family have claimed this photo as their own. However, there is a problem with this scenario as the dates don’t fit - Sydney’s son Ern, said to be in the canoe, wasn’t born until 1889, ten years after the photo was taken. Safe to say that it was in fact the one belonging to the Salisbury family.

The Salisbury brothers, John Park (Jack), Thomas (Tom) and Edward, became Ngatimoti’s first settlers when they bought 400 acres of land seventeen miles up the Motueka River in 1854. There being no track between Motueka and Ngatimoti until they themselves, with the help of six hired Māori, cleared one a bit later along the line of the present Waiwhero Road, their first move was to build themselves a canoe. As they began work on a tree trunk, an elderly Māori, seeing what they were up to, sat down and watched with great interest. Before too long, though, he leapt up in great agitation, gesticulating furiously as he demonstrated what they were doing wrong and how they should be proceeding. Recognising they had a master craftsman at hand, they promptly hired him to supervise and add the finishing touches to the project and in a very few days a canoe of beautiful lines emerged from the log and was given two coats of tar to make her seaworthy. She was launched and loaded with blankets, tools, tent, seed potatoes and every other thing likely to be useful in making a start on the new farm. It took three days of back-breaking toil to work their way up the Motueka River to their new home.

A later Ngatimoti settler, Cyprian Brereton, who recounted this tale in his book “No Roll of Drums”, commented that most settlers’ canoes were just “dugouts with flat sides and no grace or design. A Māori waka is a work of art, perfectly adapted for speed and stability. It is almost impossible to capsize them unless they are full of water. Salisbury’s canoe sat in the water like a duck”.

The photographer, Judge E.A.C. Thomas, was a relative of Col. Charles Thynne Thomas of “Dehra Doon”, Riwaka, a former British Army officer retired from service in India. Judge Thomas paid a family visit to the Motueka area during the first quarter of 1879. While staying in the area he spent quite a bit of time exploring the Mt Arthur Tableland, making drawings and taking a number of photographs as he went. I think it likely that someone colourised this photo later - experimentation with colour techniques had began but at that stage was unlikely to have been used for standard photography.

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Charles Thorp of "Burton Farm", Motueka, New Zealand.

Charles Thorp
Born 26 July 1820 at Burton Overy, Leicestershire, England
Died 20 March 1905 at "Burton Farm", Motueka, New Zealand.

Charles Thorp (1820-1905) (no “e” on the end!) was one of Nelson’s earliest settlers and for many years a leading citizen of the nearby township of Motueka.

Family & Ancestors

Seventh of the eleven children - Thomas, William, Robert, John, Frances, Mary, Charles, Anna, Louisa, Harry and Frederic - born to Rev. Thomas Thorp, M.A., and Frances Topp nee Lee, (1) Charles came from a background of affluent English county gentry, part of a congenial social network and with a passion for customary sporting pursuits like the fox-hunting for which their locality was renowned. His father was rector of the ancient rural parish of Burton Overy in Leicestershire, a comfortable living that came with status, a large Georgian Rectory and nearly 300 acres of farmland. His wife had brought this post to him by way of a dowry upon their marriage in 1811 – she was the daughter, granddaughter and gt-granddaughter of previous Rectors of Burton Overy, and the incumbency of Burton Overy had long been held by her family.

Charles and his brothers were all keen
"riders to hounds" and associated with the
Quorn and Fernie Hunts based in nearby Billesdon.

After their father the Rev. Thomas Thorp died in office in 1846, two of Charles’ brothers “inherited” the rectorate of Burton Overy through the same process. The service from 1811-1916 given as rectors of the parish of Burton Overy by first the Rev. Thomas Thorp, followed in turn by his sons, the Revs. Robert and Frederic Thorp, is commemorated at St Andrew's Church, Burton Overy, by a set of three stained glass windows installed in 1957 and known as the Thorp windows.

In actual fact, through Charles' mother Frances Thorp nee Lee, the family connection with the rectorate of Burton Overy was much older. It dated right from the time when her ancestor, the Rev. William Burdett, became rector of Burton Overy in 1582, and only ended with the death of her youngest son, the Rev. Frederic Thorp, in 1916. The patronage (advowson) - right to nominate the successor as rector to the benefice of Burton Overy – was passed down the family line, and with the judicious use of locums paid to fill in the odd gap, William Burdett's descendants contrived to keep the incumbency more or less continuously in their own hands. (2) Her father, Rev. William Southworth Lee, M.A., was the patron (holder of the advowson) when Frances married, and he presented his new son-in-law, Rev. Thomas Thorp, to the benefice of Burton Overy as the parish's next rector.

Anglican clergymen abounded on both sides of his family, and the Church of England always played an integral role in Charles Thorp's life.

Growing up in England

The Old Rectory at Burton Overy,
Leicestershire, England.

Although the inscription on his headstone gives his year of birth as 1821, parish records show that Charles Thorp was in fact born at the Burton Overy Rectory on 26 July 1820, and baptised the following day, probably by his father, at St Andrew’s, the medieval parish church right next door. (3) It’s likely that he would have either gone to one of the better-known public schools or had private tutoring. He certainly attended Oxford University, matriculating at Worcester College in 1838. (4) When the 1841 census of England was taken, Charles was staying at home in the Burton Overy Rectory, along with his parents and unmarried sister Frances Thorp, perhaps pondering his future options. (5)

Instead of then following his brothers into one of the traditional careers with the Army, Navy or the Church expected of a young gentleman, at the age of 21 he set sail for the far side of the world, travelling cabin class as a single man on the 500 ton barque “Olympus” to Nelson, New Zealand. (6) Before departing England from Gravesend on 16 June 1842, he had purchased land at the New Zealand Company’s London office under the ballot system, with the sections thus bought to be allocated later on arrival in Nelson.

Arrival in Nelson, New Zealand

Nelson Haven
The artist, William Fox, was at the time
the New Zealand Company's Nelson agent.

Soon fitting into Nelson’s small society after his arrival at Nelson Haven (now Port Nelson) on 28 October 1842, Charles started clearing his new 50 acre block at Stoke, being at the time one of just four intrepid settlers who had taken up land in this area, known then as Suburban South, and situated about 8km from the Nelson township.

In a report dated 1 December 1843, William Fox (Captain Wakefield's successor as the the New Zealand Company's Agent for Nelson), noted, "On entering the plain from Nelson, the first cultivations met with are those of Messrs Thorp, Ward and Songer, each of which has enclosed about five acres, which are at present cropped with barley and potatoes." (7)

Thorp was also one of the four riders who took part in the first Nelson Anniversary Day madcap steeplechase up and down Church Hill in February 1843 (all that fox-hunting came in handy). (8) William Weightman, whose horse "Lottery" Charles was riding on the day, had been one of his fellow cabin class passengers on the "Olympus", and later settled at Upper Moutere. A few months later Thorp was fortuitously just too late arriving in Nelson from Stoke to join the party involved in the disastrous Wairau Affray, a confrontation with Ngati Toa chieftain Te Rauparaha over land claims, during which the New Zealand Company’s Nelson agent, Captain Arthur Wakefield, was killed, along with 21 other settlers from Nelson.

The move to Motueka

Having befriended Motueka settlers Dr Danforth Greenwood and Captain Edward Fearon (Fearon’s brothers-in-law Tom & John Ward had been two of his three neighbours at Stoke), Thorp sold up his land at Stoke and around 1844 moved to Motueka, a small outpost on the other side of Tasman Bay. At the time the only ready access from Nelson was by sea, with small ships sailing to and fro from the Raumanuka harbour long used by local Maori. Charles took up Section 49, close to both the Greenwood & Fearon homesteads, on a road line running parallel to Motueka's eastern seashore, and he built a small house there. The whole of central Motueka was then covered by a large stand of lush lowland podocarp-hardwood forest of great cultural and horticultural significance to local Maori and known by them as Te Maatu (the Big Wood). Two remnants are all that now remain of this forest - the Fearon Bush Recreation Reserve and Te Maatu/Thorp Reserve. So close to both ocean and forest, the air would have been filled with the calls of native birds of sea and woodland.

There were few Europeans in residence then and ongoing anxiety about potential armed conflict with Maori following the Wairau Affray in 1843 meant early settlers tended to cluster near each other for reassurance.

"Woodlands" [1852]
Artist: Sarah Greenwood
The farm and homestead established at Motueka in 1843
by early settlers Dr Danforth & Sarah Greenwood.

Surveyor Samuel Stephens' house at his Riwaka farm "Knowle Wood" was destroyed in a fire on 25 July 1846, and he and his wife Sarah stayed for a couple of months at the "Woodlands" home of their friends Danforth & Sarah Greenwood,. The household soon became too crowded, the Greenwoods having 10 children, and the Stephenses then decamped to Charles Thorp's little home just down the road, and for a while Charles "became a boarder in his own home".

The Stephenses then moved into a small cottage at the northern end of the growing town of Motueka. with which Samuel Stephens had an early connection, having overseen the Motueka subdivison on behalf of the NZ Company in 1842. He reported in a letter to family in England that "The society of Motueka was small though agreeable, consisting of Mr and Mrs Greenwood and family, Mr Thorp and a Mr and Mrs Fearon - the English population, mostly labourers and mechanics*, might number 100 souls - the natives 150 men, women and children. They are on very good terms with the Europeans and are industrious cultivators, as well as employers of the mechanics in assisting them to build their warries**or rather houses now..." (9)

"Burton", a residence of Charles Thorp, esq.,
Drawn as a wedding gift for Charles Thorp
and his bride Mary Ward
by the artist, Sarah Greenwood in 1846.

Over time, Thorp invested in property as it came up for sale in and around the township, some of which he subdivided off into smaller sections for sale as Motueka grew. He also had land in the outlying areas, including Section 32 in Lower Moutere and 50 acre Section 11 at Riwaka, 35 acres of the latter being sold to Riwaka settler Richard Holyoake around 1853. Part of the Greenwoods' original Section 152 also became absorbed into the Thorp Estate. However, Charles chose to live and farm for much of his long life at his first home block, soon expanded to comprise the four 50 acre suburban sections designated 148-151 on the NZ Company survey map, set between Tudor Street and Old Wharf Road on the western side of the road line later named for his family – Thorp Street.

A public-spirited man, he served as a Justice of the Peace at a time when a J.P. was called upon to act as magistrate and oversee court cases, on the Motueka Education Committee, and as Chairman of the Motueka Road Board. He was closely involved with the development of the Anglican Church in Motueka, often acting as a lay reader in earlier days. Following the outbreak of the "Flagstaff War" in Northland in 1845, a short-lived Nelson Battalion of Militia, consisting of two companies, was formed, although it never saw action. Charles served as ensign in No 1 Company, with Dr Greenwood as captain.(10) When the First Taranaki Land War broke out in 1860, a Volunteer Militia Corps was formed in Motueka, but Thorp was not involved with this. Unlike his friends Captain Fearon & Dr Greenwood he never showed any inclination to enter the cut-throat world of politics.

The Church of England

One of the strong bonds between Thorp, Fearon and Greenwood was their dedication to establishing the Anglican Church in the Nelson area and particularly at Motueka. In 1844 Captain Fearon donated a piece of land on the corner of the present Thorp and Fearon Streets as the site for an Anglican church and churchyard cemetery. A church was built, but it was of cob construction and before the roof could be put on, a torrential storm rapidly turned it into a mud pie.

The first St Thomas Anglican Church
at Motueka.
Built of pit-sawn timber and
consecrated by Bishop Selwyn
on 16 April 1848.

The second attempt, constructed from pit-sawn timber this time, was more successful. Named St Thomas’, the new church was consecrated by Bishop Selwyn on 16 April 1848, and its first vicar, the Rev. Thomas Lloyd Tudor, was inducted. In the meantime informal services had been held in settlers’ homes, most often Dr Greenwood’s “Woodlands” homestead at the seaward end of Tudor Street, with Thorp and Greenwood often serving as lay readers.
.
Although the church was slow arriving on site, the cemetery was in use from early on and it was Charles Thorp who conducted the first committal service there on 2 November 1845 – that of Maria Brougham. As seems fitting, the last burial to be held at this cemetery was that in 1946 of Charles Thorp's daughter-in-law, Helen Thorp nee Gillard. The old cemetery remains as Pioneer Park, however, the centre of town having moved over time to High Street, in 1860 the church itself was dragged by a bullock team to a new spot on land earlier donated for the purpose by Dr Greenwood. Its new home was close to the site of the present St Thomas’ Anglican Church, buillt in 1911 at 101 High Street, Motueka. (11)

“A Gentleman of Independent Means”

When Charles Thorp came out to NZ in 1842 the class system was very much alive and well. His status as a member of the gentry was acknowledged by the consistent use of the courtesy title “Esquire”. A gentleman of independent means was one who was so well off, generally through inherited assets, that he had no need to work for a living. His paternal grandfather, Thomas Thorp Snr of "Burleigh Hall", Overseal Leicestershire, owned his own bank at nearby Loughborough, so money probably wasn’t an issue!

Two Maori waka off Motueka's eastern coastline,
a common sight for Thorp Street's earliest residents.
Snow-covered Wharepapa/Mt Arthur in the distance
and Te Maatu (the Big Wood) at centre.

The school Charles himself attended is unknown, and it is possible that he had private tuition. Apart from his brother William, whose career as a captain in the Royal Navy began as a midshipman when he was thirteen, Charles’ brothers went to well-known public schools Rugby & Uppingham Grammar. John then joined the British Army as an ensign with the 63rd Regiment of Foot, and the rest went on to university - Cambridge, their father's alma mater, for fledgling clergymen Robert and Frederic, and Oxford for Charles and Harry, who became a merchant based in Liverpool.

Athough he was in a position to hire labourers for his farm and did so, it’s clear that Charles was not someone to stand on ceremony when there was work to be done and was prepared to do the hard yards himself in bringing his land into production - his obituary makes this point quite clearly. Farm life came with its hazards – in July 1852 he received a kick to the leg from one of his working bullocks, which left him with a compound fracture and out of action for some time.

Marriage and Family

Mary Thorp nee Ward
(1817-1886)
Married Charles Thorp
at Motueka on 11 June 1850

On 11 June 1850, Charles Thorp married at St Thomas Church, Motueka, to Mary Ward, (1817-1886) (12), the wedding service conducted by Rev. Thomas Lloyd Tudor, Motueka's first resident vicar.

Mary was the younger sister of Captain Fearon’s wife, Elizabeth nee Ward and her brothers John & Tom Ward had been Thorp's erstwhile neighbours at Stoke. The Wards were gentlemen farmers, based for several generations on land near the market town of Crediton in Devonshire, England. Mary was born in 1817 to Thomas Ward and his wife Elizabeth nee Huggins at "Langridge", the Ward family farm, her baptism at the Church of the Holy Cross in Crediton being registered on 12 February 1817.

John Ward had returned to England in 1848 for a visit, and while there he married Caroline Micklem in London. On his return to Nelson on the ship "Bernicia", he brought back with him his bride and his sister Mary Ward, who on arrival in November 1849 made her home with the Fearons at their "Northwood" home in Motueka.

Thought to be
Charles Herrick Thorp
(1852-1873)

Charles' neighbour Sarah Greenwood was delighted with this match and commented "I think our estimable neighbour Miss Ward will be married in a fortnight. Mr Thorp is smartening up his little home and I hope to make a drawing of it soon after the wedding. I suppose I must give them each a copy for their friends". (13) Her daughters Mary and Fanny Greenwood attended the wedding as bridesmaids.

The Greenwoods, Fearons and Thorps always remained close. Thorp was one of the executors of Captain Fearon's will, and after Fearon died in 1869 supported the family. He was also a trustee of the Fearon Estate.When subdivision of the "Northwood" property began following the death of Edward Fearon's widow Elizabeth in December 1901, Charles Thorp dealt with the details by taking tenders for the various lots and advertising for contractors to build a road (today's Fearon Street) tracing the line of the original long drive leading to the "Northwood" homestead. (14)

Thought to be
Mary Dyott Thorp
(1853-1867)

Newly-weds Charles & Mary settled at the little home Thorp had built on his Thorp Street property and named “Burton” after his English birthplace. They had 3 children: Charles Herrick Thorp (born 20 January 1852), who attended Nelson College 1863-5 (there is a suggestion that this was where he contracted the tuberculosis that later killed him), Mary Dyott Thorp (born 17 July 1853), and Frederick William Thorp (born 9 November 1861), known as William.

"Dyott" and "Herrick" were respectively the maiden names of Charles Thorp's maternal grandmother and gt-grandmother - a nod to his illustrious relatives, the Dyotts of Freeford Hall .

“Burton”: There and Back Again via "Sandridge"

Although keeping his farming operation running at "Burton", as his family grew Charles Thorp had a new, larger home built on Section 146, his land at the Old Wharf Road end of Thorp Street, near the estuary and tucked against a pretty grove of trees. Because it sat on a large sandy ridge, it was given the name "Sandridge”.

"Sandridge"
Second home of Charles & Mary Thorp
at the south end of Thorp Street, Motueka.
Striped corrugated iron verandah roofs were
very fashionable around the 1870s.

However, after the deaths there of their only daughter Mary on 1 June 1867 (15) and eldest son Charles Jnr. on 30 May 1873, (16) "Sandridge" clearly became an unhappy place for Charles & Mary Thorp. After the death of Charles Jnr. they moved back to their original home halfway between Tudor St & Old Wharf Road. Soon after their return to "Burton", an additional building was constructed there to house farm labourers, who gave their new quarters the ironic title "Buckingam Palace" (when the "Burton" farm was subdivided many years on, "Buckingham Palace" would become repurposed as the front part of the Liveseys' home). At a later date a block was attached to the "Burton" home itself and consisted of a storeroom, dining room, bedroom and office for a farm manager. In keeping with the Royal palaces theme, this became known as "Balmoral" and Charles' granddaughters recalled that it was occupied for a time by Jerry Huffam. Another long-term farm worker they remembered well was Jim King, who had worked at both "Sandridge" and "Burton", but had his own home elsewhere and left after the death of their father Frederick William Thorp in 1911. (17)

Around 1874 Charles Thorp leased “Sandridge” to an old friend, ex-British East India Company army officer turned Plymouth Brethren evangelist, James George Deck, whose daughter Mary Deck ran a private school for girls there with the help of her sisters Alice Deck and Margaret (Daisy), who had been left a widow with a baby daughter just a year after her marriage to Robert McIntyre in 1866. After their father’s death in 1884, the Deck sisters moved to Motueka's oldest surviving house, “The Gables”, also on Thorp Street, where they lived together for many years. It seems that the Decks leased only the household section at "Sandridge", while Charles Thorp continued to farm the rest of the property.

The “Sandridge” property remained in the Thorp family for years, however, the house became dangerously decrepit and was eventually demolished. Late in 1918 Helen Thorp, widow of Charles Thorp’s youngest son, Frederick William, advertised the materials from the recently dismantled "Sandridge" homestead for sale by auction in the "Nelson Evening Mail" on 4 November 1918. Presumably the land was being cleared, though whether it was also sold at this time is unclear. Names of owners later connected with this property include Woodman, Halliwell, Duncan and Bensemann.

Edwin Bensemann took on the project of developing from swampland on his farm (formerly part of the 'Sandridge" property) the 2.3 hectare wetland reserve now known as the Sanctuary Ponds Reserve, which soon attracted a wide variety of birdlife and became a popular picnic area for locals. When Mr Bensemann sold his farm to the Council in 1993, the maintenance of the Reserve became a project shared by both Council and the Motueka community.

Death and Descendants

Charles' Thorp's headstone
at the old St Thomas'
Churchyard Cemetery
now Pioneer Park

Charles Thorp died at his home, “Burton Farm”, on 20 March 1905, in his 85^th year. (18) He was buried at the old St Thomas’ Anglican Churchyard Cemetery (now known as Pioneer Park) on the corner of Thorp & Fearon Streets, along with his wife Mary, who had predeceased him by many years, dying at “Burton Farm” on 8 August 1886. (19) All three of their children were also buried here. Charles Thorp's obituary gives an instructive picture of the concerns which occupied Motueka's earliest European settlers.

The inscription on his headstone reads

Charles Thorp

Born 26 July 1821

Died 20th March 1905.

Arrived in Nelson 1842

Sadly, of Charles & Mary Thorp's 3 children, only the youngest, Frederick William Thorp, survived into adulthood, becoming a successful businessman, one of his ventures being the Burton Butter Factory which he established in Motueka in the 1880s.This is thought to have been the first such factory to open in New Zealand, though a butter factory at Karere, near Palmerston North which started in 1884 is recorded as the official holder of that title. He was also manager of the Motueka Fruit Grower's Syndicate, and followed the tradition of public service espoused by his father. He served on a number of committees, as a member of the Motueka Harbour Board and the Nelson Hospital & Charitable Aid Board, and as chairman of the Motueka Literary Institute. In 1905 he was elected Mayor of Motueka, having previously served as a councillor on the Motueka Borough Council and as Acting Mayor in 1904. He died suddenly and unexpectedly in office on 25 August 1911 at the age of 51. (20)

Rt: Frederick William Thorp (1861-1911)

Farmer, businessman, Motueka Borough Councillor &

Mayor of Motueka from 1904-1911

On 29 July1891 Frederick William Thorp married Helen nee Gillard (1868-1946), youngest daughter of Joseph Henry Gillard & Sarah Eliza nee Catley. Their wedding took place at St Thomas Anglican Church, Motueka, the marriage service being conducted by the Rev. Samuel Poole, Vicar of St Thomas'. Helen's father was an early Wellington settler who took up land at what became Herbert Street in the Hutt River area, and worked as a shipping agent and clerk for one o Wellington's oldest established businesses, wine merchants Bethune & Hunter, before joining the Civil Service.

F. William Thorp & Helen nee Gillard had 2 daughters, Ethel Mary Thorp (1907-1990) and Helen Dyott Thorp (1909-1985)

Ethel married in 1934 to John Dunstan "Dun" Atkinson, a cousin of sorts through the Ward family connection - his mother Mary Herrick nee Hursthouse was a daughter of Richmond Hursthouse and Mary nee Fearon. Known as "Torchy" for his red hair, Dunstan Atkinson became a significant figure in horticultural science and research circles.Their wedding was covered by the "Evening Post" on 4 June 1934. Both died in Auckland in 1990, John in February, Ethel in May. They had 2 sons, Arnold Burton Atkinson (known as A.B.) & William Atkinson. Arnold stayed at "Burton Farm" during WWII and started school at Motueka. He later became a nurseryman at Kumeu. (21)

Helen married George Arthur Tillson, an English immigrant, formerly a farmer at Braeburn, Lower Moutere, where his father Arthur Griffiths Tillson ran a tree & plant nursery. His family being members of the Plymouth Brethren, who took a pacifist stance, George was assigned a non-combatant role during WWI, serving as a medic, but after developing a passion for flying while stationed in England, he served as a Squadron Leader with the RNZAF during WWII, being awarded the OBE for his services in 1946. After their marriage the Tillsons farmed at Moturoa Island in the Bay of Islands.They had no children, though George Tillson, a divorcé, had a family from his first marriage in 1918 to English war bride, Ellen Bowman Griffiths. George died at Havelock North in July 1985. Helen had died in Auckland in May 1985 - it appears that the couple had parted ways some years earlier.

The Thorp Estate

F.W. Thorp’s family continued to live on at the “Burton” home, with the farm itself being leased out to a Mr Goodman, who lived with his family at "Buckingam Palace". The Thorp Estate had by this time built up a substantial portfolio of local real estate. Following the death of F.W. Thorp’s widow Helen nee Gillard in 1946 (hers was the last ever burial at the old St Thomas Anglican Churchyard, Motueka), her daughters Ethel & Helen gifted 8 acres of original native bush from the Thorp Estate to the Motueka Borough Council in 1952 for the reserve now known as Thorp Bush. (22)

The Thorp Bush Reserve
at Motueka

Further land from the Thorp Estate was sold around the same time to the Motueka Golf Club for an addition to its beachfront golf course. This land included Motueka Sections 139, 140 & 141 (a total of 148 acres) on the seaward side of Thorp Street. (23) In 1860 Captain Fearon had exchanged his land at Motupipi in Golden Bay for these particular Motueka sections, originally owned by a local Maori. The land had been intended as the site for a school for Maori, but this didn't eventuate, and it seems that at some point later these sections were passed on to Fearon's friend and brother-in-law, Charles Thorp.

In 1858 Charles Thorp himself had undergone a process with the Commisssioners of Native Reserves to swap some of his Motueka land for Section 146, the 90 acre block of Maori reserve land on the seaward side of Thorp Street, which was where he later established his "Sandridge" property. (24)

Another parcel of 4 acres from the Thorp Estate had already been sold around 1945 to the National Tobacco Company for their Motueka headquarters on the corner of High & King Edward Streets – currently the site of the Caltex service station. Motueka’s iconic Art Deco clock tower is the only reminder now of the N.T.C.’s presence – the company which had it built in 1951 to a plan drawn up by Hastings architect John Kingsford. Rather unfairly, though, the clock tower has in fact for many years been known locally as the Rothmans' Clock Tower, taking the name of a later tobacco company which was set up on the same site.

The mystery of the “other” Charles Thorp

The presence of a later Charles Thorp in Motueka has caused some confusion, given that the original Charles Thorp’s only surviving child, F. William Thorp, had no sons. This other Charles was a well-known solicitor who practised in Motueka from 1920 through to the late ‘50s.

It turns out that he was Charles William Thorp, born at Malton, Yorkshire, in 1890. He was related to the Thorp family of Motueka, being Charles Thorp’s great-nephew. Charles William Thorp was a son of the Rev. Robert John Thorp & Evelyn nee Willoughby, and a grandson of Charles Thorp’s older brother, the Rev. Robert Thorp, whose stint as Rector of Burton Overy following his induction in 1846 was cut short when he died in 1851 at the age of 37 as the result of a hunting accident.

Charles William Thorp had apparently decided to emulate his great-uncle Charles – he emigrated from Yorkshire, where his family lived, to Nelson, NZ, around 1910 and took up a position as school teacher at Collingwood, Golden Bay. Following the death of his cousin Frederick William Thorp in 1911 he moved to Motueka, presumably to help support his Motueka kin in their bereavement. He taught at the Motueka District High School and then at Wellington College before retraining as a lawyer. He later returned to Motueka, where he set up his legal practice.

Clearly the English Thorps & the NZ Thorps had kept in touch over the years.

Charles William Thorp from Armthorpe, Doncaster, Yorkshire, was married on 2 September 1916 to Ivy Mabel Coote (1892-1991) eldest daughter of Cecil Henry & Blanche Coote of "Mountrath", Wakapuaka, Nelson, at Christ Church Cathedral, Nelson.(25) The name of the Coote homestead signals a connection to the Anglo-Irish Coote baronets of Castle Cuffe, who later held the title the Earls of Montrath. Automobiles were a family passion, and Ivy's brother John Coote became a well-known Nelson businessman, associated with Hall & Coote's garage on the corners of Rutherford & Hardy Streets in Nelson.

Charles W. Thorp died in 1961 at Nelson Hospital and a plaque at Marsden Cemetery in Nelson marks the place where his ashes were deposited. (26)

***

Notes

* "Mechanic" was an older term for what we'd now call a skilled labourer, craftsman or artisan - carpenters, blacksmiths etc.

** "Warrie" - corruption of the Maori word "whare", meaning a hut or dwelling, often made from raupo leaves and rushes like the one seen in the photo below. For many years it was common for European settlers to refer to houses and the huts and shelters they knocked up on their farms as "warries".

Unnamed Maori group from Motueka outside a whare [ca 1860s]
Unidentified photographer.

Further related information

For more background and detailed information about the development of early Motueka, and Captain Edward Fearon and his friends Charles Thorp and Dr Danforth & Sarah Greenwood, see:

Captain Edward Fearon:The King of Motueka

http://rustlingsinthewind.blogspot.com/2016/08/captain-edward-fearon-1813-1869-king-of.html

For more detailed information about Charles Thorp's grandparents, parents and siblings , see:

Charles Thorp of Motueka, New Zealand: Parents and Siblings.

http://rustlingsinthewind.blogspot.com/2020/03/charles-thorp-of-motueka-nz-parents.html

References

1) Charles Thorp of Motueka, NZ: Parents & Siblings

Rustling in the Wind blogsite

http://rustlingsinthewind.blogspot.com/2020/03/charles-thorp-of-motueka-nz-parents.html

2) "Aspects of Burton Overy" edited by Joan Stephens, pub. Burton Overy Parish Council. Leicestershire, England. Ch. 4, pg 43 St Andrew's Church. Covers the history of St Andrew's and the Rectors of Burton Overy, including William Burdett and the 3 Reverends Thorp.

https://www.burtonoverypc.org.uk/uploads/aspectsofburtonovery.pdf